Tag Archives: roses

St. Mary Major and the Miracle of the Snow

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The mosaics found in Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major) are among the oldest representations of the Virgin Mary. One scholar writes that “… the iconographic depiction of the Virgin Mary was chosen at least in part to celebrate the affirmation of Mary as Theotokos (bearer of God) by the third ecumenical Council of Ephesus in AD 431.”
Under the high altar of the basilica is the Crypt of the Nativity or Bethlehem Crypt, with a crystal reliquary said to contain wood from the Holy Crib (manger) of the nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem. In the crypt is also the burial place of St. Jerome who translated the Bible into Latin in the 4th century.

Who doesn’t need a miracle right about now? Although the miracle of St. Mary Major and the snow occurred in Rome during early August, I don’t think we need to wait until August to appreciate it.

According to the story, a rich Roman and his wife wanted to leave their estate to the Church in order to build a new church but they were uncertain where it should be built. They were promised in a dream that a miracle would show them the place to have the church built. A few days later, on August 5 in the mid-late 4th century, a miraculous snowfall occurred atop one of the hills of Rome. The couple understood this to be the miracle they had been told to expect. (Other versions of the story say that the Pope had chosen the site for a new church but his decision met with resistance; he marked the area to be excavated for the church foundations and had the dream promising a miracle to vindicate his choice of location. The next day the snow fell exactly–and only!–within the area he had marked for excavation.)

The legend is still commemorated by dropping white rose petals from the dome of the church during the celebration of the Mass on August 5th, similar to the red roses that are dropped from the dome of the Pantheon at Pentecost.

The mosaics in the church are among the most stunning examples of early Christian art and iconography. They illustrate events in the life of the Mother of God and of Christ and events from the Old Testament that are understood to be allusions or anticipations (types) of the events in the life of Christ and His mother.

The church is known as St. Mary Major because it is the most important of all the churches in Rome dedicated to the Mother of God; it is also sometimes called Saint Mary of the Crib (Sancta Maria ad Praesepe), a name it was given because of the relic of the crib or manger of the Nativity of Christ: four boards of sycamore wood believed to have been brought to the church, in AD 640–649. The Pope traditionally celebrates the Mass three times on Christmas Day; one of these celebrations is held at St. Mary Major because of the relic there.

Well-Dressed Wells

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A decorated well in Derbyshire celebrates the fresh well water that allowed communities to survive before modern plumbing.

Romans named the sixth month of the year for JUNO, the queen of the Roman gods and goddesses. But the Anglo-Saxons called it Sera Monath (“Dry Month”) which was as much a hope as a weather prediction. Juno, however, is associated with roses and weddings and that—together with graduations—is what most modern people associate with June.

If June was the Dry Month in Anglo-Saxon areas, then it was important in many places to celebrate the water that was available. People began to celebrate “well dressings” in June to honor the underground springs of fresh water that sustain rural communities and urban neighborhoods. These well dressings are mostly parties now but in ancient or medieval times before plumbing celebrated the survival of communities and neighborhoods thanks to the available water. (See photos of making well dressing decorations here.)

Wells were thought to be the homes of nixies and water sprites, most of whom were friendly but some might be mischeivous or downright nasty to people that came to draw water from the well. Children, however, that fell into the well and drowned were almost always said to have been stolen by the nixie or sprite in the well.

Mother’s Day in Mid-Lent

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red roses

Remember the smudges on the foreheads of so many people on the streets of Manhattan back on Ash Wednesday? I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many “Ashes-to-Go” stations out on the streets and corners of the city before. (One woman stopped me on a street in front of a church in the West Village which hadn’t opened yet and asked if I knew where she could get ashes. Luckily, I had just passed one such “ashes-to-go” station close by and was able to direct her to the corner of West 13th Street and Seventh Avenue to receive her annual reminder “that [we] are dust and unto dust shall [we] return.”)

How many promises to foster better habits and resolutions to give up something detrimental have fallen by the wayside now that we are approaching the mid-point of Lent? One custom associated with mid-Lent that will surprise most North Americans is that the Sunday which marks mid-Lent (this year it’s March 15) was traditionally treated like “Mother’s Day” in medieval Europe — and still is in the UK! On this mid-Lent Sunday, grown children would be expected to visit with and give roses to their mothers. (In connection with this, the Pope would often send a golden rose to a monarch who had been especially supportive of the Church during the past year. Henry VIII received such a golden rose, shortly before his break with the papacy over his divorce of Catherine of Aragon.)

The liturgical texts for this Sunday spoke of the heavenly Jerusalem as the mother of all believers. Fasting and ascetic disciplines were relaxed on this day and rose-colored vestments were worn instead of the purple vestments worn on the other days of Lent. Following this brief “vacation” from Lent, the festivity of this “Mothering Sunday,” fasting and discipline could be taken up again. It was an opportunity to try again at keeping lenten resolutions that had perhaps already fallen by the wayside.

It’s still a good day to get back to whatever good intentions we may have started Lent with — giving up a bad habit, exercising more self-control over a problematic area of our lives — as well follow J.K. Simmons’ advice at this year’s Oscars ceremony: “Call your mom, call your dad. If you’re lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet, call ‘em. Don’t text. Don’t email. Call them on the phone. Tell ‘em you love ‘em, and thank them, and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you.”